Pages

Monday, April 02, 2007

When I grow up

I got back in town this evening after the Reproductive Rights Conference at Hampshire College which was AMAZING. Overstimulatingly amazing, to paraphrase Rebecca. The most exciting part is that I think I'm beginning to maybe figure out what I want to do with myself, someday, possibly. I want to work in reproductive justice... as defined by Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (a fantastic California-based organization), the "Reproductive Justice Agenda (RJA) places reproductive justice at the center of the most critical social and economic justice issues facing our communities, such as ending violence against women, workers rights, environmental justice, queer and transgender rights, immigrant rights, and educational justice." Basically you look at how women's reproductive sexuality fits within the context of all of society's ills. The RJ movement is fairly new, led predominantly by women of color, and is centered around the marginalized communities and issues that there's no room for in the traditional reproductive rights/pro-choice agenda, which is historically a movement whose issues have been framed and most often fought for by affluent white women. I didn't know anything about the RJ movement before this weekend, and I got so excited about it that, like a math nerd after a particularly exciting calculus class, I took forever falling asleep each night because my mind was turning over and over and over.

So that's that. I start my new NARAL-only hours when I head back to work tomorrow... haven't yet decided how I'm going to spend my decadent amounts of free time, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. What else is new here? March has come and gone, bringing loads of rain, which is A Good Thing. March might be my favorite month in Austin... it's all green and bloomy, warm but not too warm yet. The rain made everything look ridiculously green from the airplane as I flew in today, especially coming from the still brown and bare-branchy northeast. So backwards.

And hey, who wants to come with me to the US Social Forum at the end of June???????

5 comments:

The nephs! And your life! Damn, your post is so much better than mine. Since I get notified about comments, I stopped stalking our blog, but now I miss your posts! Hey, look, we all know what we want to do with our lives! go us! Reproductive rights are suuuch a big deal in the developing world. I was SHOCKED by the related mortality rates in south america. while i was in bolivia there was an article in the main newspaper, which if I'm remembering correctly, put abortion-related complications at the NUMBER ONE cause of death for women. Anyone need another reason to legalize abortion?

Which is to say: 70,000 adolescents have abortions every year in the andean region (venezuela, colombia, ecuador, peru, bolivia, chile). Out of the 7 million women between 15 and 19, 1.5 million are mothers or are pregnant."

Good lord, I did find the above mentioned article, and it's worse than I remembered. No wonder I did a doubletake when I saw the headline - it reads "9 de cada 100 mujeres en el país mueren por aborto." Yes, 9 out of every 100 women in the country dies of abortion.

KT, want to move to bolivia with me and work on reproductive justice there?

ps - excuse the excessive commenting. Here's where I get to wave the flag firmly planted in the fertile soil of blogspot.com. (You know, the one that says "It's my blog, damnit! Get your own! No really, please do, I'd like to stalk it." Hmm... that flag must be pretty big...)

Just wanted to say I was almost with you on the conference, until I ran screaming from these words...

June 27 - July 1, 2007 · Atlanta, GA

July in atlanta? I think not. of course you will probably enjoy the sweet relief of moving up one level of southernsummerhell.

there's the neph update i missed this weekend! oh god. dead of cuteness.

also: i may seriously be into social forum. am looking into it. i have to get over my activist inferiority issues- you know, let's say my lack of feminist gospel songs or whatever. let's be in touch. i mean, not that we aren't, but about that specifically as opposed to folkblog stalking and singing gossip. you know. love you more than the irony of so many white folks with dreads who will be at said social forum...xoxoxo